Intellectual Property Law Commons^™

The Sunset Of "Quality Control" In Modern Trademark Licensing, Irene Calboli

American University Law Review

Historically, based on the premise that trademark protection is about consumer welfare, trademark law has allowed trademark licensing only as long as licensors control the quality of the products bearing the licensed marks. Ever since its adoption, however, this rule has been difficult to enforce because it hinges on a concept that is ambiguous and difficult to frame in a legal context: quality control. Unsurprisingly, the consequence has been inconsistent case law and much uncertainty as to what represents valid licensing. In addition, in the past decades, courts have proven increasingly reticent to strictly apply this rule and have declared …

Commodification, Intellectual Property And The Women Of Gee’S Bend, Victoria F. Phillips

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

In this article the author explores the story of the quilters of Gee’s Bend, Alabama, tracing the emergence of this group of isolated, disenfranchised craftswomen as both fine artists and the unlikely purveyors of mass-market consumer culture through commodification based on the power of intellectual property rights. The author then looks to recent trends in commodification literature to help explore the tensions and dualities presented in the story. Among other things, the article asks whether the quilters have been coerced into the marketplace and are unwittingly alienating part of their identity, or whether they have willingly tapped the power of …

Symposium: Reconstructing The Author-Self: Some Feminist Lessons For Copyright Law, Carys J. Craig

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

No abstract provided.

Transcript: Comments On Panel 1, Christine Farley

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

No abstract provided.

Transcript: Introduction To The Third Annual Ip/Gender: The Unmapped Connections Symposium, Victoria F. Phillips

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

No abstract provided.

Transcript: Opening Remarks, Peter Jaszi

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

No abstract provided.

Transcript: Introductory Remarks To Panel 1, Christine Farley

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

No abstract provided.

Symposium: Feminism And Dualism In Intellectual Property, Dan L. Burk

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

No abstract provided.

Symposium: Introductory Remarks To Panel 2, Peter Jaszi

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

No abstract provided.

Symposium: My Fair Ladies: Sex, Gender, And Fair Use In Copyright, Rebecca Tushnet

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

No abstract provided.

Symposium: Molecules And Conflict: Cancer, Petents, And Women's Health, Eileen M. Kane

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

No abstract provided.

Symposium: Comments On Panel 2, Peter Jaszi

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

No abstract provided.

Symposium: Walking The Tradition-Modernity Tightrope: Gender Contradictions In Textile Prodution And Intellectual Property Law In Ghana, Boatema Boateng

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

No abstract provided.

Symposium: Commodification, Intellectual Property And The Quilters Of Gee's Bend, Victoria F. Phillips

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

No abstract provided.

The Trademark Jurisprudence Of Judge Rich, Jeffrey M. Samuels, Linda B. Samuels

American University Law Review

For nearly forty-three years, Giles Sutherland Rich served as a member of the U.S. Court of Customs and Patent Appeals (C.C.P.A.) and its successor court, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. Judge Rich is widely regarded as one of the most influential jurists in the area of patent law—and rightfully so. Less well known is that Judge Rich also authored many significant decisions in the area of trademark law. Judge Rich’s opinions in the area of trademarks span the spectrum of trademark registrability issues and explore important issues of public policy. This Article reviews a number of …

Survey Of The Federal Circuit's Patent Law Decisions In 2006: A New Chapter In The Ongoing Dialogue With The Supreme Court, Gregory A. Castanias, Lawrence D. Rosenberg, Michael S. Fried, Todd R. Geremia

American University Law Review

In 2006, the Federal Circuit decided only one portion of one patent case en banc, and that was done mainly as a procedural matter (the entire case was not argued to an en banc court) in order to reconcile prior conflicting precedent on the issue of induced patent infringement with the recent Supreme Court decision in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, Inc. v. Grokster, Ltd., involving induced copyright infringement. But in light of the Supreme Court’s much more muscular review of the Federal Circuit’s patent cases—which may not even reflect the full extent of the Court’s interest in the Federal Circuit’s patent decisions—the …

Review Of The 2006 Trademark Decisions Of The Federal Circuit, Christine Haight Farley, Geri L. Haight

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

The United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit delivered only seven precedential trademark opinions in 2006. The Court addressed a range of substantive issues including trade dress configuration, reverse passing off, and genericism. Notably, two of the seven precedential decisions involved plant names protected by the Plant Variety Protection Act. The Court decided only one case in 2006 where the primary issue was procedural, rather than substantive. In that case, the Court sided with the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board and affirmed its decision on the applicability of the res judicata doctrine. In 2006, as in previous years, …

Copyright, Fair Use And Motion Pictures, Peter Jaszi

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

Within copyright law, the tension between contemporary creators' needs for access to preexisting material, on the one hand, and the imperatives of copyright ownership, on the other, are mediated primarily by the so-called "fair use" doctrine. The application of this venerable legal concept, which exempts some substantial takings of protected content from infringement liability, is the subject of this essay.

The Federal Circuit And The Supreme Court, Arthur J. Gajarsa, Lawrence P. Cogswell

American University Law Review

No abstract provided.

2005 Trademark Decisions Of The Federal Circuit, Stephen R. Baird

American University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Patent Law Decisions Of The Federal Circuit, Sasha Mayergoyz, Michael F. Harte, David Mckone, Amanda J. Hollis, Peter Moore, Jennifer L. Travers

American University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Feminist Interpretations Of Intellectual Property, Debora Halbert

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

No abstract provided.

Fair Use And The Fairer Sex: Gender, Feminism, And Copyright Law, Ann Bartow

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

No abstract provided.

“One For All: The Problem Of Uniformity Cost In Intellectual Property Law.” American University Law Review 55, No.4 (May 2006): 845-900., Michael W. Carroll

American University Law Review

Intellectual property law protects the owner of each patented invention or copyrighted work of authorship with a largely uniform set of exclusive rights. In the modern context, it is clear that innovators' needs for intellectual property protection vary substantially across industries and among types of innovation. Applying a socially costly, uniform solution to problems of differing magnitudes means that the law necessarily imposes uniformity cost by underprotecting those who invest in certain costly innovations and overprotecting those with low innovation costs or access to alternative appropriability mechanisms. This Article argues that reducing uniformity cost is the central problem for intellectual …

From Pirates To Partners (Episode Ii): Protecting Intellectual Property In Post-Wto China, Peter K. Yu

American University Law Review

In From Pirates to Partners: Protecting Intellectual Property in China in the Twenty-First Century, I criticized the ineffectiveness and short-sightedness of the U.S.-China intellectual property policy. As I argued, the approach taken by the administration in the 1980s and early 1990s had created a cycle of futility in which China and the United States repeatedly threatened each other with trade wars only to back down in the eleventh hour with a compromise that did not provide sustainable improvements in intellectual property protection. Since I wrote that article five years ago, China has joined the WTO and undertook a complete overhaul …

Performance, Property, And The Slashing Of Gender In Fan Fiction, Sonia K. Katyal

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

No abstract provided.

Trademark Dilution Law: What's Behind The Rhetoric?, Christine Haight Farley

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

No abstract provided.

Why We Are Confused About The Trademark Dilution Law, Christine Farley

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

In the decade following passage of a federal right of anti-dilution, the biggest question in trademark law was how to prove dilution. This is a clear sign of something. Can no smart attorney, judge, or social scientist figure out what dilution is in order to prove it? Dilution has proven to be a "dauntingly elusive concept" for the courts. Even in the Supreme Court, nearly all of the questions from the Justices In oral argument in Moseley v. V. Secret Catalog were seeking to simply understand what dilution is. Unless they simply know it when they see it, other courts …

One For All: The Problem Of Uniformity Cost In Intellectual Property Law, Michael W. Carroll

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

Intellectual property law protects the owner of each patented invention or copyrighted work of authorship with a largely uniform set of exclusive rights. In the modern context, it is clear that innovators' needs for intellectual property protection vary substantially across industries and among types of innovation. Applying a socially costly, uniform solution to problems of differing magnitudes means that the law necessarily imposes uniformity cost by underprotecting those who invest in certain costly innovations and overprotecting those with low innovation costs or access to alternative appropriability mechanisms.

This Article argues that reducing uniformity cost is the central problem for intellectual …

Shades Of Grey: Can The Copyright Fair Use Defense Adapt To New Re-Contextualized Forms Of Music And Art?, Nicholas B. Lewis

American University Law Review

No abstract provided.